Enchanted by Cables

I have long wished to knit a cabled sweater. Many moons ago, I purchased a copy of the book Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold. I would linger over the photos and dream about the day I would be able to understand the small hieroglyphics .
The day has arrived.
I have been knitting cables like a woman possessed! Here's a sock knit from Do You Wanna Dance Sock Hop Yarn - knit up in Rib and Cable pattern by Nancy Bush.
And I am working on a wild pattern that includes cables for my Bloomin Feet Sock swap ( that's a post all unto itself soon)

Perhaps I could back up for a moment here and share yet another class I took at the Madrona Fiber Arts Fair.... yes - another one (actually there is yet one more, after this, that I will share at some future date.. ahem) The class was titled "Morphing Cables" with Fiona Ellis.
What did I learn? (you mean aside from the fact that I can make very ugly class samples?) I learned that I have absolutely no desire to become a designer. The class was very free-form, and many students simply took off with their designs. Not so, this wizard. I just messed about a bit, moving one stitch over 3 (not so pretty) moving one stitch across row after row (also not too pretty) etc. Ultimately I came to appreciate and love my knitting books even more! You might also notice in the photo that the sample is off the needles, and momentarily going to be ripped out!



And here, I have evidence that I spent a bit of time in our fiber booth (hee hee) a blogging friend, Marisol, stopped by to say hello - and Klaus snapped this photo of us. It's one of my favorite parts of fiber fairs (to have people stop by and say hi) - me? I'm the red-head wearing the swallowtail shawl.






Once we got home from the show, I awaited a special order that I had placed ...... it arrived about a week ago (could you hear the loud applause all across the land?) - I ordered this dk weight merino to be hand dyed by Jessie (the queen of subtle dyeing!) The color has been difficult to photograph in its true likeness - I would call it a dusty rose, or maybe even a soft raspberry sherbet... whichever - it's glorious.

I quickly got out my ball winder, made cakes of four skeins, and cast on for the sweater that is featured on the book's cover. It is knit with size 4 and size 5 needles.
The more I knit with it, the more I love it. I wanted soft changes in the color, that would move throughout the sweater, adding depth to the eye. And Jessie gave me exactly what I had hoped for. Isn't it wonderful! Jessie has a great blog, and also an online store, A Piece of Vermont. Hop on over and check out her yarns.

In order to avoid becoming marooned on the fabled "Sleeve Island", I started the sleeves first! I've completed even more than this photo shows - and am only about 20 rows from finishing both sleeves. I'm hoping to begin the front of the sweater later on today.

Celtic cables have captured me with their charm.


On a final, yet unrelated note: SusannaHansson (who taught the Lapland Mittens class) has announced that she will be teaching this class at Webs (in Massachusetts) in Sept. 2007, and perhaps even at Stitches East. She will also be at the Nordic Knitting Conference in Seattle, as I mentioned on my earlier post. This is an amazing class - I highly recommend it!